Celebrate Return of the Jedi's 30th birthday with this short film

Happy Return of the Jedi day everyone! May 25th might not have the same ring to it as the 4th, but today marks 30 years since the original Star Wars trilogy ended with the release of Jedi in 1983.

Now that's a movie poster.

Entertainment Weekly asked Kyle Newman (director Fanboys, a comedy road movie about a group of friends trying to see Star Wars: Episode 1) to make a short film collecting a few famous faces to offer their thoughts on Jedi. He managed to get Kevin Smith (Clerks), Seth Green (Family Guy), Jaime King (Sin City), Topher Grace (Spider-Man III), Eli Roth (Hostel), Jason Mewes (Clerks II) and band Fall Out Boy. Pretty impressive.

You can watch all ten-minutes of The Return of Return of the Jedi here (EW's video doesn't allow embeds), and you can also watch its Dagobah-themed trailer below:

The Bounce #1 is no slacker when it comes to sales

Joe Casey and David Messina are happy as the first issue of their new series which revolves around a slacker superhero is getting a second printing.  "All of us working on The Bounce are more than gratified that people seem to give a damn," said writer and co-creator Casey. "The first issue is just the beginning, though. Stick around and you won't be sorry.  Meanwhile, there's no better feeling in the world than selling out at Image Comics!"

The second printing of The Bounce #1 arrives in stores on June 26, 2013.

First Look at Age of Ultron #10A.I. & Angela variant cover for Age of Ultron #10

Age of Ultron #10A.I. features the creative talents of writer Mark Waid and artist Andre Arajuo as well as a covers by Sara Pichelli and Paolo Rivera.

Founding Avenger Hank Pym, stands at a crossroads! Faced with a dilemma only he can solve, Pym must gamble his past and his future!

Age of Ultron #10 A.I. goes on sale June 26, 2013.

To celebrate the arrival of Age of Ultron #10, Joe Quesada has created a wraparound variant cover starring Angela.

The Avengers are down to their last resort as they forge the ultimate plan to finally break free from Ultron’s ferocious iron grip.

Age of Ultron #10 goes on sale June 19, 2013.

Sinister Dexter forms a deadly partnership with IDW

Joining Judge Dredd as part of collaboration between 2000 AD and IDW are Finnigan “Finny” Sinister and Ramone “Ray” Dexter; the two hit men based in the European mega-city Downlode have a habit of encountering ninjas, hover car chases, shape-shifting robot assassins and the Yakuza.   

“With its deft mix of black comedy and gritty urban action, the exploits of Sinister Dexter have remained a popular mainstay in 2000 AD for the past 17 years,” stated 2000 AD’s Editor-in-Chief Matt Smith. “With IDW reprinting a selection of their tales, I hope a whole new audience is going to enjoy meeting the gun-lovin' criminals.” IDW Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall stated, “I’m happy to expand our relationship 2000 AD.  It’s been a pleasure working with the guys there, and even moreso because the books that we’re producing together are such fun things to expose to this market in an even grander way. Abnett and Clarke’s Sinister Dexter stories are gritty, crazy, and action-packed bursts of adrenaline and I can’t wait to set them loose among American comic readers.”

The specific plans for the American invasion of Sinister Dexter have yet to be unclassified.

Comic Book Review - Batman, Incorporated #11

Oliver Davis reviews Batman, Incorporated #11...

Issue #10 ended on a cliffhanger. Bruce had injected himself with the Man-Bat serum, bulging his body into a monstrosity of rage. Soaring in a giant, robotic suit with wings of flesh, the Bat-Batman of Vengeance flew towards Talia al Ghul atop her fortress for their epic, final showdown, the conclusion of five years of plotting from Grant Morrison. And then!....

...an interlude story, focusing on the Batman of Japan. Another entire month to find out what happened. Unless they do a story on the Nightwing of New Zealand next.

Interlude stories are often refreshing mid- or post-arc breaks, that can embrace the single-issue format of comics. Grant Morrison is no stranger to them. His run on Action Comics had a few, the most prominent being about Earth-23's black President Superman (read: Obama). Thing is, this issue is frustratingly placed in the middle of a climax. It's also the first of Batman, Incorporated not to be written by Morrison. Instead its regular artist, Chris Burnham, picks up the quill, for him to leave drawing duties to Jorge Lucas. Although they create a readable episode, it is robbed of both Morrison's writing and Burnham's art - the two best things about the series (and arguably contemporary comics as a whole).

It follows the Batman of Japan, recruited to Incorporated way back in the first issue. Like, the real first issue, before that whole New-52 thing happened. Along with his sidekick girlfriend, Canary (not Black Canary, just small Canary [she's Tinkerbell size]), he chases five motorbike-riding female villains across the streets of Tokyo, each differentiated by the colour of their uniform. "Who are you? The Pink Ranger's silicone sisters?" Canary asks in the issue's best exchange. "Better than being built like a 12-year-old boy," comes the green-clad rider's bitchy response.

Burnham has a real knack for dialogue like this. They continue:

Blue Rider: "Hah! I bet I know why he likes his girlfriends so small."
Batman of Japan: "I do all right."
Blue Rider: "Not as well as her whole High School baseball time did! I head she's like the Tardis. Bigger on the ins--URKK!"

The "urkk" is the sound Batman of Japan's boot makes against a motorbike rider's leather.

But that, along with the wonderful time-lapse caption "FIVE ANGUISHED DECISIONS LATER...", is not enough to distract from where the real action is happening: the next issue.

Oliver Davis (@olidavis)

Watch Benedict Cumberbatch's deleted Star Trek Into Darkness shower scene

J.J. Abrams has revealed a brief snippet of a deleted scene from Star Trek Into Darkness where - you might want to be sitting down for this - Benedict Cumberbatch has a shower.

Abrams offered the scene in response to claims that the movie is aimed more toward male viewers, the prime example being when Carol (Alice Eve) suddenly (and some might argue 'gratuitously') strips down to her bra and pants. He also pointed towards an earlier scene where Kirk appears with his own top off in bed.




Probably time for a cold shower now...

Star Trek Into Darkness stars Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Bones), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Checkov), Alice Eve (Carol Marcus), Peter Weller (Admiral Marcus) and Benedict Cumberbatch (John Harrison). Read our two ★★★★★ reviews here and here, and one ★★★★ here.

Ranking the Series: The Fast & Furious Franchise

Jake Peffer ranks the six installments of Fast & Furious franchise....

Since beginning in 2001, The Fast and the Furious franchise has become one of the most successful movie series of the past decade, combining cool cars with incredible action set pieces and likable characters. The franchise has changed somewhat over the years, going from being about street racing to following these characters as they run from the law. Each film certainly ranges in quality, but they all have plenty of entertaining moments, so with Fast & Furious 6 coming to theaters I felt it was time to rank the series from worst to best...


6. Fast & Furious (2009)

2009 saw the original cast from the first Fast & Furious movie reunite. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster all returned for the fourth installment, which ended up being the worst in the series. What makes this one the low point of the franchise is the fact that it's all played way too seriously. The series has been built on being over-the-top and ridiculous, but still keeping everything fun and entertaining. Fast & Furious is essentially devoid of almost all humor, has maybe one or two entertaining scenes, and features the weakest villain in the series, Braga (John Ortiz).


5. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

For the second installment director John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood) took over the reigns and while the sequel isn't quite as good as its predecessor, it's still a fun watch. 2 Fast 2 Furious takes us from Los Angeles down to Miami where Brian (Paul Walker) and childhood friend Roman (Tyrese) must go undercover to take down a drug kingpin (Cole Hauser). This is where the series started to get exaggerated with some of its action sequences and at times it almost feels cartoony. Nonetheless, there is still a lot of fun to be had here and both Tyrese and Ludacris, who plays Tej, are great additions to the franchise cast.


4. The Fast and the Furious (2001)

It seems like so long ago that The Fast and the Furious came out but the film still holds up well today. While it was never a great movie to begin with, like this entire series there is a lot to enjoy. This is a great introduction to the characters we've grown to love over the years and makes for a decent 'undercover cop who befriends a criminal' story. Some of the characters come off as annoying here, especially the villain, and Paul Walker's acting is certainly weak, but it's still an entertaining action film that has a lot going for it.


3. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

The third entry is where the series lost a little steam. It performed the weakest at the box office and audiences weren't as fond of this as the first two films because of the lack of Vin Diesel (not including his cameo) and Paul Walker. However, I quite enjoyed Tokyo Drift and felt it added something new to the series. Lucas Black makes for a good lead and this is the first film where we are introduced to Han (Sung Kang), who ends up coming back for parts 4, 5 and 6 despite dying in this film. Adding the aspect of drifting makes the races extremely fun and Tokyo is a great place to showcase a film like this.


2. Fast Five (2011)

Fast Five gave new life to this franchise when it opened in 2011. After a very disappointing fourth entry there was only one way to make the fifth entry worth watching: by bringing back all the best characters from the previous films. Adding Dwayne Johnson to the cast made for a great antagonist and ends up being a much better character than the true villain. The chemistry between all the characters are the high points of Fast Five and this time around the film really goes above and beyond when it comes to the action set pieces. Watching Vin Diesel and Paul Walker drag a safe through the streets of Rio de Janeiro is better than the first four films combined.


1. Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

It may seem a little presumptuous to call the newest film the best in the series alreadym but it really is that good. Fast & Furious 6 takes everything that was great about Fast Five and cranks up it to 11. The action set pieces are some of the best I've seen in quite some time, and this is the first film in the series to have a truly great villain, who is played wonderfully by Luke Evans. While I'm not a fan of them essentially bringing back a character from the dead, they're able to make it work. No pun intended, but the film is fast, furious and doesn't let up from the start. All our favorite characters are back, with great chemistry still, and they finally find a way to tie the series back in with Tokyo Drift, which is without a doubt one of the best after credits scenes I've seen in a long time.

How would you rank the Fast & Furious franchise? Let us know in the comments...

Jake Peffer

Movie Review - The Hangover Part III (2013)

The Hangover Part III, 2013.

Directed by Todd Phillips.
Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, and John Goodman.

SYNOPSIS:

This time, there's no wedding. No bachelor party. What could go wrong, right? But when the Wolfpack hits the road, all bets are off.

After making more money than they’d ever thought possible back in 2009, The Hangover is back  for its third (and possibly final) entry. After the horribly formulaic second movie, director Todd Phillips and co-writer Craig Mazin have decided to shake things up this time round in an attempt to breathe some life into the tired format. The results? A very, very unfunny movie.

Let me just stress before we continue that I actually quite liked the first movie. At the time it felt like an original idea that provided some good gags, but it did lose its appeal on repeated viewings. The sequel on the other hand suffered from Malibu Stacey New Hat syndrome as it was the exact same movie but with a different background. My problem with The Hangover Part III however is even more simple – it’s just not funny. At all.

When you see a comedy, you expect to laugh. It's sort of a prerequisite of the genre. I didn’t laugh once during The Hangover Part III – not once. Not even a giggle. Not even a titter. Not even a smirk. Nothing. Rather than having my sides hurt from laughter, my jaw hurt from yawning.

Phillips and Mazin clearly came to the conclusion that the most popular aspects of The Hangover are Zack Galifianakis' Alan and Ken Jeong's Mr Chow. With that in mind, the shake-up of the formula has brought them to the forefront of the movie and focusses the plot around them. This is problematic however because neither character is funny. In fact for the most part, they're just plain annoying. In the first Hangover, Alan was the simple man-child who was just there to say something wacky and he was fine in that role, but when you put him front and centre the cracks begin to show. The same goes for Mr Chow who has gone from small cameo fodder to feature character and let me tell you that his shtick, which wasn't funny to begin with, is irritating beyond all recognition.

With Alan and Chow front and centre, it does mean that poor Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper are pushed to the back with virtually nothing to do but help drag the plot move forward. The "brilliance" (for lack of a better word) of the original movie was that these two were the everyday men who find themselves in a wacky situation - but The Hangover Part III is just wacky characters doing wacky things with horribly unfunny consequences.

I know I sound like a broken record, but it's almost impressive how unfunny The Hangover Part III is. They try everything to get a laugh - a CGI giraffe losing its head, Alan taking his t-shirt off, Mr Chow getting naked, Alan putting a lollypop in a woman's mouth, Mr Chow eating dog food, fighting coked up roosters and none of it works. Not one of the lame jokes or lines of dialogue in this movie made me laugh.

The Hangover Part III is just rubbish. If ever there was a movie that didn't need to become a franchise, it was The Hangover. It's just annoying people doing unfunny things for what feels like an eternity. At the start of the year people were claiming Movie 43 to be the "Worst Movie Ever" because it wasn't funny - but that at least got one or two laughs from me. This brought nothing. I'll give them an 'A' for effort for at least trying this time round, but a massive 'F' for implementation. Pure crap.

Flickering Myth Rating - Film: ★   / Movie: ★

Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth's co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth's Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.

First trailer for Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for the next instalment of the ongoing DC Universe Original Animated Movies series, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, which is based upon Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert's 2011 'Flashpoint' crossover. Check out the official synopsis, followed by the trailer below...

"When time travel allows a past wrong to be righted for The Flash and his family, the ripples of the event prove disastrous as a fractured, alternate reality now exists where a Justice League never formed, and even Superman is nowhere to be found. Teaming with a grittier, more violent Dark Knight and Cyborg, Flash races to restore the continuity of his original timeline while this new world is ravaged by a fierce war between Wonder Woman's Amazons and Aquaman’s Atlanteans. With breath taking action and an all-star voice cast, it's a bold, emotional vision that will forever change the landscape of the DC Universe."

Featuring in the voice cast for Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox are Justin Chambers as The Flash, Kevin Conroy as Batman, Dana Delany as Lois Lane, Ron Perlman as Deathstroke, C. Thomas Howell as Professor Zoom / Reverse Flash, Vanessa Marshall as Wonder Woman, Cary Elwes as Aquaman, Michael B. Jordan as Cyborg, Sam Daly as Superman, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, Danny Huston as General Lane and Kevin McKidd as post-Flashpoint Batman.


Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox hits shelves on July 30th.

Countdown to Man of Steel - Trailer 4, TV Spots, Posters, Powers and Respecting the S

Martin Deer rounds up all the latest talking points from Man of Steel as we count down to the return of Superman this summer....

Since we last checked in here on the Man of Steel countdown we've had a number of new posters, banners and footage as the marketing ramps up in to super speed ahead of June 14th. To be honest with you, I have avoided all of the footage - barring the new trailer, which we'll get to - and thus I cannot really comment on it. That being said, there's a few bits to discuss, so let's get to it.

Super Powers & TV Spots

Last week three short video features were released showing off Superman's strength, flight and speed, along with two new TV spots. Abstaining from these myself, but I hear they're pretty good.


"Father to a Son I'll never know. Citizen of a soon to be dead planet. And I will have my vengeance."

Inevitably, character posters were due, and I whilst I know many don't like the trend - they're easily avoidable if you you're strongly against them - Man of Steel's have so far been interesting. The first of which is the one which has been most appealing to me: Jor-El. Minus the lens flare (why?), a full on look at Jor-El holding some kind of weapon looks insanely bad.ass! Look at him! Like an E.T. Maximus Meridius. With a Krypton Civil War raging I am hoping, and expecting, that the relationship between Jor-El and Zod will be fully fleshed out to give Kal-El and Zod's conflict deeper meaning.

"He's the King Daddy. You should all be bowing down to him".

Zack Snyder has not been quiet in his appreciation of Big Blue over the past few months, as his love for the character bursts out of him at the seams. Speaking this week, along with Chris Nolan and David S. Goyer, Snyder talked about how Man of Steel is all about trying to, "respect the S". Snyder also talks of how the film puts a sci-fi spin on Superman, especially when it comes to Krypton. Snyder making a sci-fi film that has Nolan's quote unquote realism giving those elements gravitas, sounds absolutely perfect to me.

Another gem of a quote is Goyer talking about the relationship between young Clark and his adoptive father, which it appears will have some very natural, very human conflicts.

Trailer 4

"For every human you save, we will kill a million more." - Faora

A line which perfectly sums up the feeling I get from this trailer - one of dread. With a distinct lack of Zod action in the majority of the trailers - barring the chilling "I will find him" line in trailer 3 - we get a real feel here for just how much of a threat Michael Shannon's General Zod is going to be. His fellow Kryptonian, Faora, looks incredibly menacing, and her one line is enough to make you seek refuge. What's interesting to me as we see more of Zod, is his motivations are still not clear. We do not know what he wants with Kal-El nor why. Having avoided every TV spot so far, the image of Zod using his heat vision is a stunning visual - as it is with Superman, but we'll get there later. What this trailer did reveal is that the Zod viral / TV spot that was released prior to the third trailer is actually part of the film. Which, with the way it was played out in this trailer, really shows how the 'First Contact' scenario is being handled, as groups of people gather around TV sets to witness Zod's message. They aren't handling this theme lightly, and this will be a very interesting aspect of the film.

Whereas trailer 3 gave us the story, and just a snippet of the action, this trailer hammers the point home: Superman will get physical and the action will be heavy. Some really great shots were in this trailer: Faora attacking the fighter jet, Zod swinging a steel girder at Superman, Superman screaming whilst using heat vision and the most jaw dropping shot has to be Superman sinking in a sea of skulls.

Hans Zimmer's score is also relentless in this trailer, and the two pieces - presumably the first 50 seconds are Zod's theme - are brilliant and I shall absolutely be checking the full score out before June 14th.


Well that's it for this week, when the next countdown rolls around we will be one week away from release, and with that in mind I'll be recapping what we know about Man of Steel thus far. See you next time.

Martin Deer